American media outlets doing the bidding of the Chinese might not be entirely ideologically driven, The Daily Caller writes.

J. Arthur Bloom, managing editor of The American Conservative, told Tucker Carlson that Comcast’s business ties to Beijing could explain the company-wide hesitancy in directly challenging the Chinese Virus claims coming out of China.

Carlson noted that anti-Trump bias could be driving media outlets to side with China, but Bloom countered that at least with regard to Comcast/NBC the reasons could be all business.

“We’ve got this tremendous disconnect between what the American people actually think about China and what the media has been telling us,” Bloom explained. “Something like 70% of Americans blame China for it, and yet that’s not what we’ve been getting. So, why? There’s all the usual reasons that most reporters are liberal, and that they trust experts a lot, but they’re also in business with them.”

“The Chinese inserts in ‘The New York Times’ or ‘The Washington Post,’ those have gotten a lot of attention but also some of these bigger conglomerates like Comcast which owns NBC Universal, for example they are building a big theme park in Beijing which is a multibillion dollar investment which hasn’t come on line yet,” Bloom continued. “And so what does that mean? If Rachel Maddow were to come on and start bashing the Chinese government, you know, the communist party could come down and say, ‘Actually, we are not interested in opening or theme park anymore.’”

Bloom also pointed out that, “The NBA situation was a great example where just one owner of a team was critical of the Chinese and yet the hammer came down hard on the entire league. They are not known for a proportional response here.”

And while China recently expelled some American journalists from the country, Bloom didn’t think any NBC journalists were in that group. “I would think if they were covering China in a tough way it’s a badge of honor to be kicked out,” he said.

Dr. Stephen McColgan, chief medical officer at Vivera Pharmaceuticals, California, says his company’s antibody test already exists, Fox News reports.

McColgan, told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday that his company’s rapid coronavirus antibody test is ready to be deployed, but is being held up by “red tape” at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“We have a rapid antibody test. And the key to this is, this is part of the solution to the crisis,” McColgan said. “It identifies patients that have immunity and it identifies people that can give plasma [to] critically ill patients.

“It was developed in Germany,” McColgan said. “Germany has the lowest mortality from COVID-19 globally at this point, and they’ve tested everybody. So this is good. It’s used by our allies in Europe.”

McColgan described the test as “high-quality” and “high-value,” adding that its deployment is part of his company’s goal to “get America back to work again and to make America well again.”

According to Biospace, before his interview with Tucker Carlson, McColgan highlighted the benefits of the test stating, “Our antibody test is a game changer, as it identifies the people who have been infected and have immunity with only two drops of blood from a finger prick.  Importantly, it complements the PCR test which defines infection. Identifying individuals who have immunity is paramount because they can now be on the front lines taking care of patients, and potentially providing plasma donations to the critically ill.”

Many experts say antibody testing studies could provide an indication of how many people have been infected and thus help governments to assess the risk of easing restrictions.

“When you have a patient that does have the infection [and] recovered, they have the antibodies, the antibodies mean they have immunity,” McColgan said. “So when you spin off the plasma on their blood and give it to the critically ill patient, then those antibodies fight the viral infection and allow that patient to recover … So it’s critical.”

McColgan said his company has had the test ready for three weeks and was “trying to deploy it.”

“You know, the red tape in the FDA and President Trump has been trying to cut through it,” he said. “I don’t know why New York’s been crying about, you know, no testing, no tests … You know, it’s always sort of the red tape of government moves slowly.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently told churches and other houses of worship to start preparing for life after the coronavirus pandemic passes over, as reported by ABC News.

In a letter sent to multiple religious leaders, Brian Harrell, the assistant director for infrastructure security at DHS, said that “although many people undoubtedly continue to practice their faith, including through remote services and prayer, most are inevitably eager to return to normalcy and join their fellow congregants in practicing their faiths.”

“The American people are resilient, and will achieve this goal soon,” Harrell reassured the leaders.

Harrell further suggested that “social distancing” measures may have to remain in place long after the worst of the virus has passed, and that churches should “review your security plans and ensure procedures are in place to protect your facilities and visitors.”

Harrell’s letter ended by thanking the leaders for “everything you do to champion the American people’s Constitutional First Amendment rights, as well as your leadership in keeping our houses of worship safe and secure.”

Churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship have become prominent symbols of hope and unity in the midst of the pandemic, with many facilities continuing to hold in-person worship services. Some have faced backlash, including a pastor in Florida who was arrested for continuing to hold services even though his church maintained social distancing and other hygiene protocols.

With former Vice President Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the 2020 election, Democratic observers expect that former President Barack Obama will begin reappearing on the campaign trail in support of his former second-in-command, as The Hill reports.

Following the withdrawal from the race of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Biden has all but secured the nomination and will face off against President Donald Trump in November. Sources say that Obama and Biden have spoken on the phone in recent days, increasing Democratic anticipation for Obama’s return to the spotlight.

Obama had infamously refused to endorse his former vice president in the beginning, staying suspiciously quiet and not speaking out in support of any candidate in particular. Upon entering the race, Biden claimed, to skeptical reactions, that he didn’t want Obama’s endorsement anyway. It had been reported that Obama, in a private conversation with another candidate, had even said that he believed Biden didn’t have the enthusiastic support that is necessary to win the election.

With the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the country, however, any public appearances by the former president will likely be limited to virtual appearances, including TV and internet advertisements.

Despite some excitement from Democratic pundits that Obama’s endorsement and campaigning may boost Biden’s chances in the general election, one anonymous source, cited by the Hill only as an “Obama ally,” noted that Obama’s endorsement was not enough to carry former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) over the finish line in the 2016 election. The source said “Obama alone won’t do much. We saw what happened in 2016.”

The Daily Caller reports, “Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said that she wants the next coronavirus stimulus package that Congress passes to provide funds for illegal aliens.”

Pressleytold MSNBC  said she wants to see the next COVID-19 relief package include more “vulnerable populations,” such as the :”homeless, men and women in jail, and those living in the U.S. illegally,” according to The Daily Caller.

“We need to continue to make federal investments in our community health centers,” the first-term lawmaker said. “We need to center the humanity of every individual family and workers and that includes not leaving behind undocumented and uninsured.”

“We have to continue to make investments to support vulnerable populations like those experiencing homelessness, incarcerated men and women,” she continued. “We’re focused right now making sure the CARES Act in its implementation is one that is in urgent need and mitigating the hurt that so many of our families are experiencing — all of our families are experiencing right now.”

Congress passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill, the CARES Act, providing financial assistance to Americans struggling under the coronavirus pandemic. However, many Democrats want more relief and  want the next package to include those living in the U.S. illegally.

Several House Democrats have already introduced legislation that would allow illegal aliens living in the U.S. unlawfully to apply for funds from the recently passed coronavirus relief package.

Pressley noted on Tuesday that a lot of Americans are hurting right now under coronavirus pandemic. “The gravity of it and our responsibility at the moment is overwhelming. There’s a lot of hurt. And so we have a lot of work to do to meet the scale and scope of that hurt,” she said.

As criminals are being released from New York prisons in order to avoid catching the coronavirus, the victims and families of those impacted by the prisoners’ crimes are raising objections to the widespread and systematic release, as reported by ABC News.

One such case is a prisoner from Rikers Island named Jimmy Rosario, who killed a man in June of 2019. He was subsequently convicted of third-degree assault in October 2019, and sentenced to one year in prison. Rosario is among the prisoners who has since been released due to Rikers becoming vulnerable to the virus.

Subsequently, LaTor Scott, the younger sister of Rosario’s victim Troy Scott, revealed that “nobody contacted us” about Rosario’s early release, and that “the prosecutor on my brother’s case didn’t even know he was getting out.” She herself only found out by looking up Rosario’s information on the inmate website, where she saw that he was classified as released; she and her family now fear encountering Rosario again, since he lives several blocks down the street from them.

Another example is John Bartee, who was convicted of third-degree assault for beating his wife on three different occasions, and was sentenced in November of 2019 to a year at Rikers. Upon his release, the Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark objected to his and other prisoners’ releases, saying that it was his “duty to protect the public, and the victims and survivors who remain vulnerable knowing that many of the individuals who were incarcerated are returning to the community.”

In response to the criticisms, the state’s Department of Corrections has since revised their previous release plan to now include surveillance of released inmates at their homes.

But Scott said that the release of such prisoners was “a double slap in our faces,” adding that “I think it’s kind of crazy that they are doing this without notifying families.”

CBS News has been heavily criticized for widely sharing a video that has since been revealed as fraudulent, in which a woman falsely claimed to be a nurse who was fired from her job because she wanted to wear a surgical mask while treating coronavirus patients, as reported by Fox News.

CBS shared the video on Twitter of alleged nurse Imaris Vera, who cried in an over-dramatic fashion as she claimed that she quit because the hospital where she was working, Northwestern Medicine, allegedly would not provide their staff with N95 masks. When she tried to wear her own, she claimed that she was told she was not allowed to do so, at which point she quit.

CBS added dramatic music and captions to the video, sharing it and making it go viral with over 8 million views. However, upon closer examination by investigative journalists, numerous inconsistencies were found in Vera’s story. The Federalist’s Chrissy Clark found that Vera had admitted, on her own personal Facebook page, that she “has anxiety and bi-polar depression,” and as such had not worked at the hospital in over a year. She instead spent the year off working as an Instagram model, admitting that “she was unsure if she was ready to return” to the hospital.

As a result of the scrutiny, Vera was forced to walk back part of her emotional rant, conceding that the hospital did, in fact, provide N95 masks to each of their nurses, with one mask for each individual coronavirus patient.

Jordan Schachtel of the Institute of World Politics further dissected the inconsistencies in a thread of tweets, saying that “she had been on the job for a day or two, after taking a year off to pursue something resembling an Instagram model career.” CBS’s coverage, Schachtel said, amounted to “deliberate misrepresentation of her career,” which meant that “you cannot take her statements at face value.” Schachtel noted that, while “she is indeed a nurse,” she “hasn’t been on the job much. Everything else is lies, exaggeration, and unproven statements.”

CBS further corrected their original version of the story, saying that they had reached out to the hospital itself for comment, but received no answer as to why Vera quit; the hospital referred them to Vera herself, only for Vera to make all of her social media accounts private. She has not spoken to the press since the video went viral.